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Title Race vs Relegation Fight: Two Must-Watch Games

Saturday, December 19, 2015

Week 17 of Premier League comes with a crème de la crème Monday football match: it’s Arsenal v Man City, who are occupying the #2 and #3 positions on the Table respectively. It’s been nearly a year since their last game against one another, and by now both of the teams can smell blood, as the title chase is getting more and more intense.

Despite the numerous injuries, the Gunners are down as the favourites to. win this match by the UK-licensed bookie TonyBet, with the odds of 27/20 against the City’s 39/20. However, the difference is rather slight, and it’s only fair as this is bound to be a proper battle, especially considering there’s Leicester City to think about, who’s currently top of the League.

Alexis Sanchez, Jack Wilshere, Danny Welbeck, and Francis Coquelin are all still on the bench duty along with a few others. However, Olivier Giroud is fit as a fiddle and the current golden boy Mesut Özil can be counted on to give a lot of trouble to the upcoming opponents. This game is a brilliant chance for Aaron Ramsey to shine though, so there‘s that to look forward to.

Now Man City isn‘t completely healthy, either. While Sergio Aguero is already in training before the big game, he‘s fresh out of an injury, and it looks like Vincent Kompany will have to sit this one out, too. That‘s surely a better scenario than that which the Gunners are currently having to deal with, and in general the Manchester team has been playing well recently, managing to score a lot.

Another intriguing game is definitely Chelsea vs Sunderland. Under the usual circumstances it would be overlooked as one with a painfully obvious outcome, but this season has been generous with surprises, and not only are the last year‘s defending champions only #16 after as many weeks: they’ve sacked José Mourinho literally two days before a match, smack-dab in the middle of the season.

Guus Hiddink is going to take the Chelsea wheel for the remainder of the season. This decision is a proper déjà-vu as well, considering Hiddink replaced Luiz Scolari in the 08/09 season on February 11th. The team then went on to only lose a single match, which was against Tottenham, and finished in the same position they started with, which was #3.

The squad was hugely different back then – Petr Cech was the keeper, and most of the goals were scored by Nicolas Anelka, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, and Salamon Kalou. As it happens, none of them are in the team anymore, but what Chelsea isn’t lacking is talent, and there’s a lot that Hiddink can work with.

While we’ve already seen one big managerial change when Klopp took over Liverpool, this one is bound to be just as interesting, considering it’s rather late into the season and the team seems to be in an inexplicable crisis. It’s tough to predict what’s going to come out of it – but what’s certain is that Week 17 is going to be a treat.